For 1859 the former governor Pablo García founded the school with the current name of Instituto Campechano (The Institute of Campeche) where diverse subjects were imparted. At the present time this is a prestigious school in the entity and the building is an important part of the Historical Center of the state of Campeche.

The building occupies the block formed by the streets 10 and 12 between 63 and 65 in the Historical Center of Campeche City.

With the purpose of educating the society of those times, the Jesuits founded San Jose’s clerical convent in 1756; after the expulsion of this order from Spanish lands in America in 1767, the government asked the Franciscans to direct the school. In October of 1823, Doña Josefa de la Fuente, benefactor of the school, proposed to change its name to the Clerical School of San Miguel de Estrada.

When the Law of Nationalization of Ecclesiastical Goods was approved in June 25th, 1859 the governor of Campeche on that time, Pablo García, settled down in the old school an educational institution of second and high training with the name of Instituto Campechano. It was inaugurated on February 2nd, 1860 and its first rector was Don Tamás Aznar Barbachano.

At first it had only 138 students and it offered three assignments, Medicine, Pharmacy, Jurisprudence and later on Music and Painting. Due to their creation in the old clerical school, the government permitted the Clergy the disposition of the conventual house well-known as the Church of San Francisquito and its convent (occupied at the present time by the Culture Institute ), for them to establish a Seminar for Ecclesiastical Sciences Teaching.

Influenced by the modernity of the XX century and in its desire to rise the educational level, the State created in 1958 the University of Campeche and they used Institute’s building for that purpose, consequently its construction was amplified to its actual size which embraces a complete block. Later on the Ciudad Universitaria (University City) was built and it changed its name to Universidad del Sudeste (University of the Southeast) starting classes on February 1^st, 1964. Now a days its name is Universidad Autónoma de Campeche (Autonomous University of Campeche).

Along The Instituto Campechano’s history, men that have given glory to this meritorious school have passed through its classrooms. At the present time it offers Secondary, Preparatory and High education, on the fields of Pre-school, Primary and High education, Artistic Education, Tourism, Social Work and Sciences of Communication.

Description

Its main facade is made of figured quarry, it has three levels and its main porch has a great semicircular arch, supported by pilasters of the Tuscan order. The door is an enormous wrought iron grille. The lateral facades in the second level, have windows with balconies sustained by brackets and iron handrails, finished off by small frontons adorned with denticles.

In the first level we can appreciate windows over valances crowned by small frontons. The whole left facade is sectioned by huge pilasters of the Ionic order. The edifice was built with thick masonry stone walls and roofs of wooden girders with their corresponding small vaults and flat roof.

The main element of its interior construction is the broad patio surrounded by corridors in its two levels with bays which run parallel to the corridors holding a stairway, a large room, a library, lecture halls, lodgings and general services. Along the corridors or lower cloisters, there are quarry columns aligned supporting semicircular arches, and in the galleries, small balconies with the typical tufts on their exterior side. When the building was remodeled and amplified to hold the University, they used the typical architectonic characteristics of the 1950’s.

Centenario del Instituo Campechano. Campeche: Gobierno del Estado de Campeche, 1959.

Enciclopedia Yucatanense. Tomo IV. Yucatán: Gobierno del Estado de Yucatán, 1944. 431-432.

Estado de Campeche. México, Guía Turística. México: Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática. 1996. 62-63.

Lanz, Manuel A. El Instituto Campechano . Campeche: 1901

López Espínola, Salvador. "Génesis y Proyección del Instituto Campechano" Guía de Carreras y Planes de Estudio de las Escuelas del Instituto Campechano. Campeche: Instituto Campechano 1993. 7-19.

Ramos Maza, Roberto. El Estado de Campeche. México Azabache, 1998. 54-55.